SPRINGFIELD, N.J. – One major isn’t enough to satisfy Henrik Stenson, who put himself in the mix for another Friday at the PGA Championship.
Stenson saved a shaky start in the rain at Baltusrol with a 3-wood that just landed on the front of the green at the par-5 18th and settled 3 feet away for an eagle, turning his fortunes and sending him to a 3-under 67.
That gave the British Open champion a one-shot lead at the midway point of the second round. He was at 6-under 134, one shot ahead of Martin Kaymer (69) and Patrick Reed (65).
Jimmy Walker, whose 65 led after the opening round, played in the afternoon when the course was still soft from an inch of rain overnight and more rain that caused a 45-minute stoppage Friday morning.
Whether he was in the lead was irrelevant to Stenson. All he cared about was being in the mix.
“It’s all about being there for Sunday afternoon, and so far so good,” Stenson said. “You’re not winning anything on a Thursday and a Friday, but you can put yourself in the wrong direction early days.”
That’s what U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson did, opening with a 77 and backing that up with a 72. He was headed for a missed cut for the first time in nearly 18 months on U.S. soil.
Phil Mickelson was headed that direction, too. One day after he salvaged a poor start with a 71, Mickelson began the second round by hitting his tee shot so far left that it went over the fence, onto Shunpike Road and actually caromed down another street called Baltusrol Way. Wherever it stopped didn’t matter – it was still out-of-bounds. He opened with a triple bogey and the battle was on.
The biggest fight with Stenson was coping with an awkward start.
At least he knew where he was aiming. The first group that began on No. 10 was given a bad pin sheet, meaning the hole was not where they were told. The PGA of America fixed it and apologized, though two of the three players made bogey.
Then, the rain kept coming until the 13th fairway and other parts at the end of the lower course were so saturated that play had to be halted. Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia were ready to go when they had to wait 45 minutes. So did Reed, along with Johnson, Stenson and Masters champion Danny Willett.
Stenson made soft bogeys with his putting on the 12th and 13th holes, and he narrowly avoided another bogey at the 14th. His game didn’t look much better when he had to scramble for par on the par-5 17th.
All was well with a 3-wood from nearly 260 yards, into a slight breeze, on the par-5 18th that set up his eagle.
“The start wasn’t great, and yeah, things weren’t looking great after four or five holes,” Stenson said. “So I could have easily gone the other way, but I managed to turn things around.”
If he gets to Sunday and wins another major, Stenson would join Ben Hogan as the only players at age 40 to win back-to-back majors. Mark O’Meara in 1998 and Jack Nicklaus won two majors in their 40s in the same year but not consecutively.
Stenson picked up three more birdies on the front nine and felt as if he could have made more. It would be hard to blame him for that considering his last event at Royal Troon, where he set a major championship record at 264 and had to play his best to hold off Mickelson in a duel.
“Greed is a terrible thing,” Stenson said. “And it’s easy to ask that of yourself when you’ve been on a good run and playing well that you want to make every chance.”
Kaymer is hopeful his odd trend of playing his best golf in even-numbered years continues. He got off to a rugged start, bothered by the delay and the rain, though he settled into a rhythm and recovered for a 69 to complete 36 holes in 5-under 135.
“I didn’t need to worry too much. I hit the ball fairly solid. It was just a matter of time that I create birdie chances, and they came,” Kaymer said. “I couldn’t make all of them, obviously, but in the end it was very important for me to finish the way I did, to still shoot under par under those conditions because the golf course was definitely a little bit harder to play today.”
Spieth also got into the conversation with birdies on the 17th and 18th to make the turn at 4 under. He did well to save par from the trees on No. 3, though he couldn’t escape with par on No. 7 when he drove just right of a tree and onto a cart path.
Even so, the 23-year-old Texan was only three behind Stenson, and in the mix at a major for the first time since the Masters.
